‘Prison Struggle’ Archives

On the 25th of November, Jürgen and Paolo appeared in front of the court. The prosecutor asks 18 months for Jürgen, accused of 8 arsons occurring the same night and 12 months for Paolo, accused of one. The judgement will be pronounced next Wednesday, 2nd of December. (more…)

Panayiotis Masouras is accused of being a member of the ‘Conspiracy of Cells of Fire’.

On Wednesday September 23 and at 8.15 as I was leaving my house in Galatsi on my way to the gym, I was arrested by 25 persons of the anti-terrorist squad.

In a matter of seconds I found myself on the sidewalk, hands cuffed behind my back, while at the same time they were informing their senior officers that “everything went well” and that they “have me”. I was taken to the 12th floor of Police Headquarters (note: anti-terrorist division). The next day I am informed that at the same time with me another two friends of mine have also been arrested.

In the meantime the show has already started. Without any sleep for 48 hours and physically exhausted, with my face to the wall and then a long questionnaire following, while at the same time some police officer goes from office to office announcing in a delirium of pleasure that what is happening is called war. (more…)

10 months ago, on 18 January 2009, Elijah Smith, a former British Soldier was arrested in Brighton. He had spent the previous night decommissioning the EDO/MBM/ITT factory in Brighton, in an attempt to stop it providing parts for weapons being used by the Israeli army to bomb civilians in Gaza. Nobody was injured or harassed during their action, which was one of property damage. He and his co-defendants did not resist arrest.

Exactly 10 months on and Elijah Smith is still on remand. Yes that’s right – 10 months in prison without trial. And it looks as if he is likely to remain in prison until the trial actually starts, probably on 17 May 2010, by which time he’ll have spent 16 months on remand.

Elijah is currently at Bristol prison, please write to him in solidarity:

He will be there until late November. On 30 November/1 December he and the other Decommissioners will be at Brighton courts for a ‘case management’ session relating to their trial next May. At the same time, Elijah and another decommissioner, also known as the Raytheon 2 (previously the Raytheon 3, but 3rd defendant’s charges dropped), will have that case discussed at the same court – the prosecution are trying to have the Raytheon and EDO cases linked, and a decision is due on that then. Elijah faces a third court case, currently set for 2 August 2010, which relates to alleged threatening comments he made to the EDO/MBM CEO during a previous court hearing.

Ronnie Easterbrook was convicted in 1988 for the attempted murder of a policeman during an armed robbery that was set up by the police and a police informant. The only person who died was his fellow would-be robber who was shot dead by the police. Police had lain in wait, with a TV camera crew in-tow and ambushed the gang. The man shot dead by the Police, Tony Ash, was unarmed and already surrendering to them. (more…)

This is the call for Revolutionary Solidarity with our Swedish anarchist comrade Jonatan and for all fighting prisoners! Please spread it and publish it on your websites, blogs and lists.
Attack!

ABC-Orkan

On the 14th of October 2008 the Swedish secret police SAPO raided 3 houses in different places in Sweden. They arrested the anarchist Jonatan and took different tools, political pamphlets, his computer and other personal stuff with them. After two months in custody he had his trial and was sentenced to about 15 Months in Prison, which he begins in October ’09. He is accused of three ELF-Actions. (more…)

António Ferreira de Jesus is an anarchist prisoner serving a very long sentence who recently has been protesting his conditions. 64 years old, in total he served already 43 years of imprisonment. Coming from a poor family, during the fascist Salazar regime, he revolts when he’s 17 when he’s thrown for the first time in prison. For years he suffers the horrors in prison, but he also teaches himself to read and write and gains a greater knowledge about himself and the society he is living in, and becomes anarchist libertarian. After his release, he is imprisoned three more times by the fascist state, and finally also by the “democratic” state. The worst crimes for which he was convicted are robberies of the rich and an assault on the boarding school of Leiria, where he was locked up several years of his life. His last conviction, without proofs and marked with unusual legal proceedings and violations of procedures, he got for the kidnapping of a heroin dealer. Solidarity with António – Destroy All Prisons.

After 43 days, António Ferreira left the solitary confinement at the maximum security pavilion this Monday, the 9th of November. António went back to the normal regime and to the “new” cell where he was meant to go, because the direction board of the prison gave in to his two main demands: The right to have, as everybody had before, a desk with drawers in this new cell (his other demands, a reading lamp and privacy in the showers had been granted to him already) and the promise that he will be transferred to another prison very soon, as it is his wish. (more…)

One year after the mass mobilization in Greek prisons with the participation of around 10,000 prisoners out of the near 12,000 nothing has changed. Despite the various promises made by politicians and ministers of justice the conditions in these hellholes remain appalling and overcrowding remains the norm.

One year after the prisoners start again with mass mobilizations. In the last two days 3176 prisoners from 7 out of the 36 prisons that exist refuse prison food making demands about improving the prison conditions and their earlier release. The state fears that there will be a domino effect and that soon other prisons will follow. We can only wish that its worst fears become true.

Solidarity with the prisoners’ struggle
Until the destruction of all prisons

The life of African American leader and death-row prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal is in new danger. A pending U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a case in Ohio could set the stage for the reinstatement of Mumia’s death sentence. Mumia’s case is also separately before the U.S. Supreme Court, but presented by Philadelphia prosecutors seeking to have his death sentence reinstated. (more…)

They are old things, from another century. Poverty, which progress seemed to have banished from the West, comes back to make us feel its bite. Bankers aren’t jumping from windows yet, but the poor are filling the streets. Factories and shops close their doors. Millions of people find themselves with no means for facing the future. They were promised that a life passed on their knees, between a job that profited a boss and obedience to the will of the government would at least ensure a quiet survival for them. Now it’s clear to all that this was a lie. (more…)

1st November 2009 : Disturbance at the Lewes Prison by anarchists. Here is the claim: “In the early evening of the 1st November a rabble of anarchists were up at the dirty old prison of Lewes, with some fireworks for the inmates and rage against the prison society.

Waving a skull and crossbones banner, the anarchists made a loud presence outside the main gate.

Shouting slogans like:

“The Passion for Freedom is Stronger than the Prison”

“No Prison, No Border – Fuck Law & Order”

The prisoners heard and saw us, and called back, waving, holding up lighters and shouting into the night sky between us which was broken by the boom-crack of our rockets, which illuminated the darkness. Then a second box blossomed towards the stars and another stray rocket found its way under a car before we dispersed.

This was for all prisoners in struggle, like Elijah Smith, anarchist comrade imprisoned in Lewes right now for anti-militarist sabotage against Israeli war crimes.”

As long as there is a division between prisoners and the “normal people”, I will rebel against it

Below, we’re publishing another letter from Artur Konowalik, a social prisoner in Rzeszow, Poland. Artur has already written two letters that have been published, where he wrote about prison life in Poland and about the units for dangerous prisoners, this time we can read about prisoners’ self-mutilations. We encourage you to write to Artur. The fact that he receives a lot of letters means Artur’s treatment by prison screws and his conditions have improved. Artur hasn’t given up and here he describes a big bit of his life in a really moving way, his life which is one of almost 100,000 lives behind the prison bars in Poland.
Until all are free, we’re all imprisoned.ABC Poznan

They’re old things, from another century. Two anarchists get arrested after a bank job. The first robbed it, gun in hand. They say the second helped him, holding the money. It happened in a small Greek village, this past October 1. And so? There are things that happen. And then that is a far away country, with an incomprehensible and untranslatable language. Who do you want to be interested in it? (more…)

Christos Stratigopoulos is a Greek anarchist who recently got arrested for bank robbery together with Italian anarchist Alfredo Bonnano. They are both in prison

Christos Stratigopoulos, detainee in the Amfissa prisons, wrote the following letter on the 9th of October 2009. The letter was registered to the Minister of Justice, Mr. Ch. Kastanides.
Honourable Minister Mr. Kastanides

I am an anarchist detainee in the Amfissa prisons, where I have arrived recently. Obviously, you can understand that today, I have the same relation to socialism as you have to antiauthoritarianism. I am telling you this because just yesterday, I heard on the television news that Mr. Giorgos Papandreou* urged his new ministers to “act as antiauthoritarians towards authority”.

As for myself, I was always a supporter of actions and not of vague talk. This is the reason for me to be incarcerated right this moment and not of course because of my beliefs. (more…)

The temporary release of left radical prisoners Alex and Christoph bouyed spirits in the German capital. The comrades were imprisoned on separate charges of arson following the autonomous days of action for free spaces. They were granted temporary release this week after both trials collapsed over lack of evidence. In the vicinity of a solidarity party for prisoners a car was burnt and the attending officers were greeted by stones (unconfirmed). On Saturday night the police were attacked on two seperate occasions in Kreuzberg. Near Schlecses Tor they were attacked with bottles and then again on Kopernicker Strasse with stones.

Four police cars were damaged in the latter attack including one civil cop car. In other parts of the city three cars were burnt. The antagonism between the police and the left radical scene continues to grow….

Alex and Christoph still face trial but they are not confined to prison in the meantime.